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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A simple & easy recipe for any occasion. I have these sweet cravings at night late after 10:30PM :) I know it's weird.. But this easy peasy recipe comes to my rescue at that time. You can make it as a stove top or a microwavable version. I'm not comfortable cooking in microwave due to the radiation problems every one talk about..So today I'm sharing a stove top one here.

Ingredients

1Cup Vermicelli1/2Cup sago

2Cups Milk

1/2 Cup sugar ( Adjust accordingly)

1Tsp elachi powder

1Tbs butterFew almonds & dry fruits

Heat a pan with butter. To that add almonds & dry fruits. Fry them for 1 min & remove them on to a plate. To the same add vermicelli & roast it lightly.Switch off heat & keep aside.In a pan take sago with 1/2 cup milk & cook them on a low heat till they are puffy and done.Take the butter roasted vermicelli & mix it with cooked sago. To that add the rest of milk & bring it to boil. Now add sugar & stir it. Payasam is ready so switch off heat. To that add elachi powder & dry fruits.

Heat Pan with oil. Add seasoning to pan once the mustard starts jumping remove it from heat. Allow them to cool down.Grind the seasoning first to that add salt, mango & coconut pieces. Grind it coarsely.

Chutney is ready to serve. If you like add a little seasoning on top & serve it.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Gongura pickle is called " Andhra Mata " and a very famous andhra recipe.This chutney is made in different ways & I'm just sharing one of the styles which we make at home. I used the red stemmed leaf which has more sourness than the green ones. This is also one of those pickles which can be stored year long & can be enjoyed when ever you like.

Ingredients

2 Cups dried gongura leaves

4 Tbs tamarind

1 Tbs methi seeds

12 Red chili's1 Tbs coriander seedsPinch of Hing

Salt for taste

2 Tbs oil

Seasoning

1 Tbs urad dal

1 Tbs mustard

4 Tbs oil ( Add if you need more)4 Pods garlic (Optional)

2 Red chili's

1. Clean gongura leaves and dry them on a cloth overnight.

2. Heat a pan and add gongura leaves along with oil.Fry them till they are cooked or till they gain soft texture & change to dark brown color.Switch off heat & allow those fried leaves to cool.

4. Grind the fried ingredients coarsely.Later add the gongura leaves, tamarind,salt & grind them.Remove the chutney in to a bowl.*** Now you can refrigerate this chutney in a air tight box & use it with addition of little seasoning when ever you want.

SeasoningHeat a pan with oil and add the seasoning to it. Once the mustard starts jumping. Switch off heat & add it to the above chutney and mix it well.

* Serve with rice and butter.It tastes delicious. Some to enjoy it with little onion pieces & green chili's for extra heat.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Deepavali/Diwali is also known as "Festival of Lights" celebrated on the occasion of Satyabhama killing the Narakasura.This festival is celebrated for 3days starting with dhana trayodasi , naraka chaturdashi & deepavali amavasya. Deepavali is a fun filled festival to all of us. We get to have yummy homemade sweets & savories along with fire crackers. My maternal grandparents used to visit us & deepavali in my chilhood & it was always memorable.

Deepavali 2012

On dhana trayodasi we pray to Maha lakshmi devi for wealth & prosperity. There is a saying that we should purchase gold on this day. The actual thing is on this day you have to invite guest to your house & serve him nice food along with tamboolam. In which you are suppose to add at least a gram of gold & offer the tamboolam to guest.
So taking todays gold prices in to consideration I limit myself with lakshmi pooja on this day.. :)

Deepavali 2011

The day after dhana trayodasi is naraka chaturdashi. On this day we prepare sweets in the morning & at eve we take a head bath & offer the sweets to god. My parents also have a custom of "Dubbi kottadam". I don't know how to translate in english as it is typically a tradition where you hang big oily threads to a cut gongura/roselle stems & lit them in front of the house. We pat them to ground till the fire goes off. This is typically done to remove the dishti or evil eye to the house. Then later we enjoy the sweets which are offered to god & also will do some fire cracking too.

Deepavali 2009

Where I'm living we generally decorate our house day before deepavali & setup for pooja the next day. Deepavali day we do Laxminarayana pooja in the morning & in the eve we do Dhana lakshmi pooja. We offer god maha neivedyam/prasad in the morning & a sweet with besan for the evening pooja.

Deepavali 2006

In the eve after dhana lakshmi pooja we decorate out side of our house with lots of oil lamps & do the fire crackers. It is also said that you have to lit at least one fire cracker on this day to celebrate the victory of god.

Deepavali 2011

Day after deepavali on padyami the auspicious month " Karthika masa " starts & the month is a festivals to me. There are so many important festivals starting with mondays, nagula chavithi, ksheerabdhi dwadashi & karteeka pournami. At end of the month we leave floating oil lamps in a plantain stem @ a near by lake, river or at least in a bucket.

I hope that you all have enjoyed my festive preparation series for Blogging Marathon. Staying away from home country cuts out lots of traditional possibilities while celebrating a festival.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Sravanamasam, the 5th month of hindu calendar is an auspicious month. Varalakshmi vratam falls on 2 friday of this month or the friday before poornima & Maha Lakshmi Devi is worshiped as Vara lakshmi devi on this day. This pooja is performed by married & unmarried women for prosperity, wealth & happiness.

For this festival we start preparations with purchasing of any gold ornaments or at least a lakshmi roopu or lakshmi kasu a few days ahead of the festival.Cleaning the house is common in all festivals. Apart from that the preparations start one day ahead with arranging the pooja items. Few of the must have items on the list are flowers, fruits, coconut, turmeric, kum kum, toram & prasadam for goddess.

Setting up for pooja.

On the pooja day we wake up early in the morning take head bath & will prepare for pooja. Initially we arrange the goddess with flowers, ornaments & any new jewelry bought can be kept near goddess.

Pooja starts with lighting the deepam & pooja will take around 30 to 45mins. I have a CD of pooja procedure & I'm following the same for year's.{For pooja procedure you can get a CD or a printed book that are available in Indian book stores.}

For initial prasadam we offer paanakam, vada pappu, coconut & fruits. Later for the main prasadam which will be a elaborated one includes a sweet pongal, pulihora, gaarelu, boorelu, dal, curry,rice & curd. Usage of onion and garlic is restricted for prasadam. {List of items might vary but pulihora & a sweet dish are a must.} It is believed that we should offer lakshmi devi a sweet made of channa dal on this day. Besan related sweet dishes are also good to offer as prasadam for goddess.

Preparing toram is part of the pooja. It is made of 9 threads & turmeric is applied to it. Toram should consists of 9 knots and it is kind of a 9knot garland with flowers and leaves. We perform pooja to toram & can wear it right away.

The important part of pooja is Vaaina Daanam. I generally offer the first vaainam to goddess & then to anyone who is present at the time of pooja. Later will invite friends that evening & offer them taambulam & prasadam.

I wish everyone a Happy Vara Lakshmi Vratam & may goddess shower you with her blessings.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Vighna nivarana Vinayaka/Ganesha birthday is celebrated as Vinayaka Chaviti / Ganesha Chaturthi.Vinayaka is also know as the leader of gana's and is prayed for all success in our life. This festival which falls in month of bhadrapada masa is celebrated by Indians all around the world.This festival is celebrated for 11days & at the end we do nimarjana of ganesha.

This festival is also special to me as my grand mother whom I called "Ammaji" was born on this day.She is the grand mom no one can never ever replace.

Coming to todays post for Blogging Marathon festive preparations my Vinayaka chaviti preperations will generally start 2 to 3 days ahead of his birthday. Cleaning home is a main part of the all festivals.Generally I make Vinayaka @home with clay so to do that I have to start with dusting, cleaning & decorating the house just before the festival day. Once the house is clean I will start preparing for pooja the next day.I make Lord Ganesha @ home with clay as shown below.This year I made ganesha & styled him with crystals.

Later the important part of pooja is mandapam & paalavelli. In USA it is hard to get palavelli so I generally make it with new store bought sticks & apply turmeric to it.Later will decorate it with leaves, flowers and fruits.For mandapam many Indian households have a wooden one if not you can replace it with a wooden table which you have never used before. I get birthday caps & use them as a replacement of chatram.

Next comes the pooja items those are flowers, fruits,betel leaves,mango leaves, kum kum, turmeric, sindhoor, sandal wood powder, akshata etc..In andhra pradesh we generally get 2 ganesha's as one is made of pure black mud (Banka matti or Putta matti) second we get a nice colored ganesha. But the main pooja goes for matti vinayaka & turmeric vinayaka. On festival day we make a tumeric vinayaka for pooja and also a small vinayaka with clay.

As we are all ready with the arrangements of pooja we look for a good time with no rahu kalam & yama gandam on the day & perform pooja to god.We keep books, resumes & laptops while doing pooja.Coming to prasadam or mahanaivedyam I mainly offer Undarallu or Kudumulu along with rice, curries,dal,curd & sweets.

In India we invite guests to house to see ganesha & offer them prasadam & tamboolam.The ganesha chaturthi pooja goes on for next 11days & then nimarjanam. For the next 11days we perform pooja to lord & offer him prasadam like fruits or home made sweets.In general you are suppose to do the nimarjana on odd days & not on tuesday & friday. So calculating according to that we do nimarjana of god. Here is USA we do nimarjanam @sea which is very near to us.The turmeric Ganesha is made to a paste and is applied to kids books & laptops.

The festive preparations may vary from one state to other but the Lord we all worship is same.Recipe for UndaralluYields 11 balls

Ingredients1 Cup uncooked rice1/2 Cup channa dal 2&1/2 Cups water1 Tbs jeera1 Tbs gheeSaltMaking Broken riceFirst method: To make undarallu we need broken rice. So to make that take rice & grind it coarsely.Second method: In this method we wash the rice & dry it on a clean cloth. Allow it to dry for 8hrs. Rice will be very delicate & it's easy to coarse grind rice.Making UndaralluNow take the broken rice, channa dal, jeera,water & salt in a pressure cooker. Cook on medium heat for 2 whistles. Switch off heat & allow it to cool.Take the cooked rice mix on to a plate.(Rice mix will be very hot so be careful while handling it.).Rub little ghee to your hands & take a scoop of rice mix. Roll it in to a ball.Repeat the same with rest of rice mix.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Other day I was watching " Extreme Makeover" on abc channel & they were building beautiful homes for veterans who are injured & suffered a lot. It was just overwhelming & I just couldn't stop thinking about the army forces who are protecting us while leaving there lives & families behind. A small tribute for this holiday season which I wanted to mention to all the army forces protecting us " Thank you guys for all your hard work.You all are in our prayers & God bless you guys".

So coming to todays post for Blogging Marathon I made this eggless nutella muffins which are just perfect..:)

Now scoop up a spoonful of batter in to already set cupcake pan. Fill liners half the way & leaving space so that they can rise.Top them with walnut & bake them @300degrees for 15mins or till the tooth pik comes out clean.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Today we are on 2nd day of 2nd week's Blogging Marathon.I made these lovely marble cupcakes which & just adorable to see & yummy to eat.the recipe is kind of similar to the Chocolate Mug Cakebut it's just that you have to make 2 different batters.

Sift all purpose flour in a bowl & to that add the coco, baking & corn starch powder.Mix tem with a spatula & keep aside. In a different bowl take sugar, vanilla essence, milk & butter. Beat them till the sugar is disolved completely. Now mix the dry & wet ingredients to a smooth batter. For vanilla batter:Sift all purpose flour in a bowl & to that add baking & corn starch powder.Mix tem with a spatula & keep aside. In a different bowl take sugar, vanilla essence, milk & butter. Beat them till the sugar is disolved completely. Now mix the dry & wet ingredients to a smooth batter.

Take the cupcake pan which is already set with the liners & first add a spoon of vanilla batter and top it with a spoon of chocolate batter. Add on more spoon of vanilla batter & top it with a spoon of chocolate batter. Make sure that the liners are half filled & leaving the rest of the space to rise while baking.Follow the above steps with rest of the batter.

Now that the cupcake pan is set & the oven is preheated bake them @300 degrees for 15mins or till a tooth pik comes out clean. Take them out & garnish them with choco chunks.Allow them to cool for some time.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

When the theme for Blogging Marathon was eggless cakes my first to do recipe was a mug cake.It is a simple 2 min microwave recipe which can be made in little quantities & easy to finish off.Coming to recipe this cake has a gooey deliciousness of chocolate in every bite.On the first trial it tasted like salt & baking soda.Then later I came up with some changes to recipe & it tasted yummylicious.

Sift all purpose flour in a bowl & to that add the coco, baking & corn starch powder.Mix tem with a spatula & keep aside. In a different bowl take sugar, vanilla essence, milk & butter. Beat them till the sugar is disolved completely. Now mix the dry & wet ingredients to a smooth batter.

Take a coffee mug with butter applied & add the batter to it.Don't add the choco chunks to the batter.First microwave it for 1min on power-10 or on the highest power settings of your microwave settings.At this stage the cake would have raised perfectly.Now add the choco chunks on top & microwave it for another 1 minute.Your chocolate mug cake is ready to serve.

Serve it warm & it tastes delicious.

Note:1. If you want more chocolaty flavor then add the choco chunks directly to batter & microwave it as said above.The chocolate melts in between & creates a perfect gooey texture to cake.

Heat pan with ghee & to that add the broken wheat.Fry it for 2mins & add milk & vanilla essence to the pan.Cook wheat on a medium heat which could avoid the burning of milk. Stir in between & check if the wheat is cooked. Once done add sugar to the wheat and mix it well.Cook for 5mins on medium heat.Switch off heat & garnish it with roasted almonds.

Monday, December 3, 2012

A very familier recipe which is made by many of us to celebrate happiness of our life. This recipe made me wondering why I have not posted it on my blog when I make it several times a year? So I made it for "Karthika Monday" & posted it here on my blog.

Ingredients:

For Paneer paties

4 Cups milk (2% fat milk)

1 Big lemon

2 Cups water

1 Cup sugar

For flavor milk

4 Cups milk (2% fat milk)

1 Cup sugar

Pinch of saffron

1 Tsp elachi/cardamon powder

Few roasted almonds & pistachios for garnishing

Here is a almost step by step recipe process for making paneer patties..

As seen in the above picture take milk in a vessel & boil it on a medium heat.Once it boils add the the lemon juice to milk & keep stirring it till the milk breaks as shown in second picture.

Once the milk separates from water stain it on a cloth.Now be carful with the staining process as the contents are very hot. Once it is cool squeeze the water out as shown in the middle picture. Run thru water to remove lemon flavor from paneer. Then it's time to put something heavy to remove the leftover water. I used my mortar to remove rest of the water as shown in the last picture.

After 1hr the paneer should been hard enough to make a smooth ball out of it. So scramble the paneer as shown in the middle and then make a smooth ball while kneading the paneer.

Divide the paneer in to 12 equal parts or as you wish. Now make 12 patties as shown in the first picture & keep aside.

Take water & sugar in a pressure cooker. Bring it to boil & drop the patties as shown above. (I made 11 patties & boiled them in two batches). Close the lid & cook them on medium heat with no whistle till the steam comes out or cook for 12 mins & switch off the heat.

Remove patties & squeeze it to remove a little extra water remained in it. ( Don't squeeze too much or the patties will be tasteless). Keep them aside & start making the milk liquid.

For Milk gravy/base:

In a heavy bottomed vessel take milk,saffron streaks & reduce it to 2 cups milk. To that add sugar, patties, cardamon & almonds. Boil them for 5 mins & switch off heat.